Latest KFF Health News Stories
ACOs Are Bursting Out All Over
Accountable Care Organizations are the hot new health care trend, and there’s a new study out by Leavitt Partners trying to quantify just how hot they really are. ACOs, as defined in the 2010 health law, are a delivery model that offers doctors and hospitals financial incentives to provide good quality care to Medicare beneficiaries […]
Enrollment Still Growing In Medicare Advantage Plans, GAO Says
Predictions of the demise of Medicare’s private insurance plans are premature, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
Today’s Headlines – December 1, 2011
Good morning! You’re waking up to December. Where did the year go? Here are some stories to get your day going: Politico: Eric Cantor Floats Year-End Trigger Bargain Cantor has spoken to senators from both parties — including a Thanksgiving morning phone call to the Stamford, Conn., home of Sen. Joe Lieberman — as he […]
Medicare Offers Expanded Coverage To Battle Expanding Waistlines
Keeping off the pounds is tough at any age. Now seniors are getting a helping hand from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has announced that it will cover screening and counseling for obesity as a free preventive service for Medicare beneficiaries. Coverage is effective immediately. Advocates hope that CMS’ decision may […]
Clash Between Hospital, Insurer May Reach Pa. Statehouse
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes WHYY, and Kaiser Health News. State lawmakers are signaling a willingness to referee a fight between southwest Pennsylvania’s dominant health insurer and the region’s largest medical system. Highmark, a Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, and UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health system, tried […]
Iowa Hospitals to NYC: Stop Blaming Your Patients
As Medicare moves with plans to pay hospitals in part by how well they score on reviews by patients, hospitals in low satisfaction regions such as New York have been complaining that their patients are harder to please. Those arguments, however, aren’t going over well in places like Iowa where patients tend to be more positive […]
Hospitals Gear Hiring To Health Law And Industry Changes
Defying the economy, hospitals are hiring, but many are looking more for administrative staff and clerks than care givers.
Today’s Headlines – November 30, 2011
Good morning! The Washington Post: Democrats To Attack Republicans For Pushing Medicare Cuts The Democratic Party will begin a campaign on Wednesday to attack Republican lawmakers for pushing cuts to Medicare benefits during the latest round of failed federal deficit talks, a new turn in a drama that not long ago featured top Democrats expressing […]
Support Of Health Law Rebounds A Bit
It’s up. It’s down. Americans’ views about the health care law are, well, fluid. The latest Kaiser Family Foundation monthly poll shows that the law’s popularity rose a bit after hitting a new low last month. (Kaiser Health News is a program of the foundation.) Still, more people don’t like the law than do: 44 percent to […]
Study: Big Employers Could Dump Sickest Employees On To Exchanges
A loophole in the health law could allow employers to game the system by dumping their sicker employees onto health insurance exchanges.
Unconventional Clinic Providing Safety Net For Women
Marilyn Ringstaff’s clinic fills a void for low-income uninsured women in Rome, Georgia.
More States Taking Federal Funds For Insurance Exchanges
Despite widespread opposition to the 2010 health law, a majority of states have now accepted federal funding to establish their own health insurance exchanges. The Department of Health and Human Services today announced nearly $220 million in new grants to 13 states. HHS also pushed back by six months the deadline for applying for level-one […]
Q&A: Is It Legal For Insurers To Deny Coverage Because Of A Pregnancy?
KHN’s “Insuring Your Health” columnist Michelle Andrews answers a question from a reader about whether or not insurers are required to cover maternity care on the individual market.
Study: Florida Leads Nation In Getting More Kids Insured
Florida leads the nation in reducing the number and rate of uninsured children, according to a study released Tuesday. From 2008 to 2010, the number of uninsured children in Florida fell by more than 160,000 to 506,934, says the report by researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The state’s rate of […]
Ballot Campaign To Repeal Insurance Mandate Ends In Mass.
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includs WBUR, and Kaiser Health News. If Massachusetts residents chafe at the requirement that they have health insurance, they’ll have to endure it longer. They won’t have a chance to vote against it — not in the next election, anyway. Backers of a ballot measure to […]
Today’s Headlines – November 29, 2011
Good morning, all. Here are the morning headlines to help you start your day: Politico: Mandatory Budget Cuts After Supercommittee Failure Will Trigger Pain For Some By any name, they mean pain, both for the Pentagon and for the weaklings among domestic programs. But there are winners, too: A protected class of individuals and programs […]
Both Patients And Physicians Can Suffer When Test Results Aren’t Reported
The push for better coordination of patient care, including the adoption of electronic medical records, should help improve the delivery of test results to patients from doctors and to doctors from those who perform the tests.
Colleges Face Challenges With Influx of Military Veterans
The demand for new services rises as veterans flock to schools around the country and need help for health, psychological and social issues that college officials generally haven’t dealt with.
2 States Survey Nursing Home Residents To Assess Care
BOSTON – When choosing the right nursing home, most consumers lack one of the best sources of inside information about the facilities – from the residents themselves. But at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, researchers from Minnesota and Ohio explained how consumers in those states can find summaries of nursing home […]
Treating A Scorpion Sting: $ 100 In Mexico Or $ 12,000 In U.S.
Say you’re trekking through the desert in Mexico, minding your own business, when all of a sudden a scorpion scrambles up your boot and stings your leg. You hobble over to a nearby clinic, where you’re given a dose of anti-venom that brings you fast relief. The charge for the serum is about $100. Now […]